I’m in Paris for 36 hours. A flight cancellation left me here. Ugh?? No, my first time in Paris! So I get to see lots of gardens. Even the cab ride is fun. Well, except for afternoon traffic, so I sleep a little. After finding a place to stay and eat, and the Metro, I realized I will not visiting gardens. It’s late, freezing, snowing. Walking around, looking at people’s plants in this tight city of crowded little streets is better.

French Vertical Gardens

On the way to an odd little place that serves duck only dinners of the French southwest style (!) I walked by two vertical gardens. One, an entire 6 story wall, covered in some spongy-peat like substance. An entire facade of an office planted. Beautiful, interesting. Lots of people stopping to touch it – even the late night snow.

But just beside it, an old apartment building. A few people had their own little window boxes. Plastic, bent up, colored sort of like terra cotta and strapped to the side of their building. Six stories up. Most newly filled for winter – little pyramidal Monterey cypress, greenhouse cyclamen in flower. Red ribbons. Just done for winter pleasure.

The former seems like an installation to me. Highly engineered. Highly energy intense – lots of water and machines to keep the facade a live. The later in its own way very artificial. But thats what gardens are in any case. Right? Artifice. Fun. Giving pleasure to a little old lady in her 5th story flat or to hoards of us tourist passing from the Eiffel Tower to the french country cooking duck place.

We’ve had such a beautiful fall at home in South Carolina. What pleasure Ive had from making gardens but worries about working in the winter. Wimp. I cant wait to get back home and make some winter pleasure with plants. But first some time to meet and feel the most individual plants in the world — in Madagascar. The first travel snafu – from Atlanta, left me stuck in airports and planes for 24 hours. I prepared – packed all my healthy travel food, fiber, shakes and nutrition. Hoping for smooth travels from now on — but its all part of the journey. My first time in Paris!